IBM MobileFirst Lands Big Blue in Gartner Leaders Quadrant

IBM announced that the Gartner research firm placed Big Blue in the leaders quadrant for mobile app dev platforms.

Indicating that its MobileFirst initiative is paying off, IBM announced that Gartner has positioned IBM as a leader in the research firm’s Magic Quadrant for Mobile Application Development Platforms.
The new report places IBM in the Leaders Quadrant, as measured by completeness of vision and execution ability of IBM Worklight, IBM’s mobile application development platform. Acquired by IBM in February 2012, IBM Worklight is a member of the IBM MobileFirst family of solutions. In just one year,IBM has advanced from the Niche Quadrant to the Leaders Quadrant.
According to the Gartner report, as this market reaches early mainstream status, Gartner expects leaders to be profitable, and to present lower risk and consistently high project results as the market begins to consolidate and competition grows.
In addition, Gartner Magic Quadrant leaders must not only be good at cross-platform development and deployment, but also have a good vision of the multichannel enterprise, support for standards, a solid understanding of IT requirements and scalable channels and partnerships to market. Leaders also must provide platforms that are easy to purchase, program, deploy and upgrade. Leaders can focus primarily on either B2C or B2E, but vision and execution scores are higher for vendors that can cover both use cases today.

“IBM MobileFirst, which includes IBM Worklight, represents the industry’s most comprehensive portfolio of services and software to help clients benefit from the emerging mobile economy,” said Phil Buckellew, vice president, IBM Mobile Enterprise, in a statement. “Today, with 90 percent of mobile users keeping their device within arm’s reach 100 percent of the time, businesses need assurance that mobile apps can be deployed instantly and across a range of mobile devices including iOS and Android phones and tablets. This is where IBM Worklight and the IBM MobileFirst portfolio excel.”

Michael Gilfix, director of Enterprise Mobile for IBM, told eWEEK reports like Gartner’s are important for customers as market for mobility services is still evolving and is only in its early stages.
Gilfix said IBM’s ascent from a niche player to a leader in the Gartner landscape “is a testament to what the IBM organization can do when it sets its mind to something. Our goal is to be the leader in mobile. We want to be the vendor of choice whether a client comes to us for help with strategy or with execution in becoming a mobile-first organization.”
Moreover, Gilfix said IBM is prepared to meet customers wherever they are in terms of mobility–whether they are just getting started or they need help completing an implementation. “We want to enable our customers with choice,” he said. That means IBM supports both native mobile app development and HTML5 and Web app development, as well as hybrid development–basically anything the customer wants.

“We understand that mobile is becoming the primary access method most people have with a business and we want to help clients prepare for that,” Gilfix said.
In addition to the news about its mobile success, IBM also announced that Colmobil, an automotive company in Israel–as the sole representative of Mercedes-Benz, Hyundai and Mitsubishi in the country, is using IBM MobileFirst solutions to boost efficiency and improve customer service. Colmobil’s new mobile app unlocks the data stored in the company’s systems and makes it accessible for employees and customers from any mobile device, including smartphones, tablets, display screens and kiosks. Using the new app, mechanics, team leaders and department managers can easily view progress of every vehicle the company is servicing and make better informed decisions to improve workflow. In addition, customers are provided real-time information regarding status of vehicle treatment from LCD screens in the waiting room or on-the-go via mobile devices, IBM said.